Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 119 The Southern Tour Ceremony Officially Begins
The emperor leaving the palace is itself a symbolic event. The entire country must be prepared for the emperor's tour. In addition to taking care of food, security, route arrangements, reception and other issues, they must also be prepared to deal with emergencies during this period. After all, the emperors have read history books and know what Qin Shihuang was finally packed with when he was shipped back.

Route planning is also very important. It is not only to avoid possible disasters but also to prevent Your Majesty from seeing poor places as much as possible. After all, I am kind-hearted and cannot bear to see the poor. But when will there be no poor people in the world?

In addition to these two points, there is still a distinction between near and far on this route. Some non-direct places may just be visited for a day or two, while some direct places may even be visited for several days to slowly explore.

Then, the officials of the Ministry of Personnel will decide the probability of promotion in the next assessment according to the length of Your Majesty's stay. Anyway, this is definitely against the rules, but the king's law is the law of the royal family, and the emperor's will is the will of heaven and cannot be disobeyed.

The first version of the trip was to arrive directly in Jiujiang and take a dragon boat to Hongdu Prefecture, but this version was rejected by His Majesty. He was like a party A who didn't know what he wanted, and directly asked the Ministry of Rites to make some changes. After nine consecutive revisions, His Majesty scolded the Ministry of Rites, the Imperial Observatory, the Ministry of Works, the Guanglu Temple, the Weiwei Temple, the Zongzheng Temple, and the Imperial Household Department, and finally added Fuliang County to the tour location.

"They built the palace, but you just bypassed it. In the end, I was blamed for the waste of money and manpower. They didn't even have the money they worked so hard for. Why do you hate a seventh-rank county magistrate so much? Is it because he's Guo Da's man?"

At this time, the Secretary of the Central Secretariat Hou Lin came forward and said, "Your Majesty, this arrangement is indeed inappropriate. The Fuliang River runs east-west. If you want to go through Fuliang, you have to go through Shezhou, which is undoubtedly a long detour. It would be better to change the itinerary to a resting place on the way back."

This Secretary of the Secretariat is Hou Lin, whose son was killed by Xia Lin before. After this time, he has been promoted from Secretary of the Ministry of Rites to Secretary of the Secretariat by His Majesty. Although it sounds like they are both assistant ministers, he is already the deputy prime minister in charge of the Secretariat.

How could Lord Hou not be sad about the death of his son? But he was an official with a good reputation after all. He did not really target Xia Lin and handled everything fairly. So even if other people targeted Xia Lin intentionally or unintentionally, in the end it was the man whose son died at the hands of Xia Lin who stood up and spoke a fair word.

"Then let's follow your words, Lord Hou." Emperor Hongbao waved his hand and said, "Everyone else can go away, Lord Hou, please stay for a while."

Soon, only Emperor Hongbao and Minister Hou were left in the study. Emperor Hongbao glanced at him and then let out a long sigh: "My dear Minister Hou, I'm sorry for your hardship."

"Your Majesty, I am not miserable." The Minister of the Court laughed helplessly and sadly, "I don't blame others for my son's problems. If I have to blame someone, I should blame myself. I was too eager for my son to become a talent. If I can change again, I think I can accept that my child is a mediocre person."

Emperor Hongbao stepped forward and patted Minister Hou on the shoulder: "You and I are both fathers. I should have advised you earlier. If I had given you some words of comfort earlier, you wouldn't be so sad."

"Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. It is wrong for my son to kill someone, and it is only natural that a person must pay with his life. Even if Your Majesty and your colleagues save him, I will stab him to death with a sword. If I go down to see him one day, I will say sorry to him."

Emperor Hongbao shook his head helplessly, and walked outside with his hands behind his back: "My dear Lord Hou, please follow me to the Imperial Garden for a walk."

At the same time, Ma Zhou returned to Fuliang County. After he landed, dozens of boats followed him. After those boats docked, hundreds of exquisite and beautiful girls got off.

Some of them were holding pipa, some were holding yangqin, and some were holding jade flutes. The beautiful girls were gathered together at the dock.

The workers on the dock and passers-by were all staring in amazement. It was no exaggeration to say that they had never seen so many beautiful girls gathered together in their entire lives.

"Girls, please follow me. I will first arrange accommodation for the girls."

Although these women are all prostitutes, they are all courtesans. Most of them are around sixteen or seventeen years old, and the oldest is only eighteen or nineteen. As soon as they arrive at the station, they are graceful and elegant, so it is natural to treat them with courtesy.

The carriages had already been parked at the dock. They were beautifully and magnificently decorated, and the interiors were also high-end and luxurious, and sprayed with perfume, making people feel comfortable and cozy.

After they got on the bus, the crude dock workers gathered together and started discussing: "What do you think these pretty girls are going to do?"

"I heard it was to be presented to the emperor."

"Wow... so many? Can the emperor handle it?"

"Of course you can. That's the emperor. You think it's you? Yesterday afternoon I heard a commotion in your house for less than an incense stick. You can't do that, right?"

"Yesterday? I wasn't at home yesterday. I went to Poyang to look for my cousin... Fuck!"

As for the young ladies, they were taken to a small courtyard that had been prepared long ago. This place was beautiful with clear water and birdsong. The environment was extremely quiet. The most exaggerated thing was that every household had a hot spring in the courtyard. However, strictly speaking, it was not a hot spring. It was cooling water set up to control the kiln temperature. It went through the pipe and circled around the kiln several times. When it came out, it was all boiling water. After being drained, it became warm water with a suitable temperature when it came here, which made people very happy. "This place is really nice. Miss, we didn't have such a good place to live last time we came here."

Miss Tingyun's maid squatted by the pool and sighed. This kind of courtyard with a hot spring was what she had always dreamed of, and now it had come true in a daze.

"Don't say that for now. Go and see who is in the same courtyard as us. Don't get some strangers together. It would be awkward to meet them."

Yu Tingyun sat on the stone bench and breathed a sigh of relief. The long journey really made her a little tired. She always liked a quiet life and really didn't like having a stranger where she lived.

However, before the maid left, two people came in from outside. One of them was wearing a goose yellow long gown, with beautiful eyebrows and features, and skin as white as snow. However, there was a bit of firmness and flexibility in her eyes, which formed a sharp contrast with Miss Tingyun's cunningness.

"Xiao Yue!" Ting Yun stood up: "So it's you, I thought you were going to live with someone else."

The person who came in was none other than Feng Lingyue, one of the two beauties of Qinhuai. She walked forward with a smile and said, "Hello, Sister Yun."

"Come and sit down." Miss Tingyun pulled her to her side and said, "Are you hungry? I'll go ask someone when food can be delivered."

"Don't panic, Sister Yun. Sit down and rest for a while."

The two of them sat there and started chatting. In fact, they didn't have to come, and they didn't want to come even to perform for the emperor, but they heard that they were going to Fuliang County, and Xia Daosheng was the county magistrate of Fuliang County. The two of them were Xia Daosheng's die-hard fans, and when they heard that there was a chance to get close to their idol, they naturally came together without saying a word.

But who knew that when they arrived they would find out that Xia Daosheng had gone to Jiujiang to supervise the launching of the dragon boats, and they didn't know when he would be back.

"Have you heard about the story of Lord Xia who defied power and beheaded the criminal in Hongdu Mansion?" Miss Tingyun said to Feng Lingyue excitedly, "Oh... it's really exciting. I wish I could see it with my own eyes."

They also heard the rumors while on the road, and later on gradually filled in the information along the way. Their idols had recovered the country and killed the criminals, which made them happier than if they had done these things themselves.

"Yes, I heard about it too. I plan to feign illness and not go on the dragon boat race, and just stay here and wait for Lord Xia." Feng Lingyue started off with a bang, and she deceived the emperor with just one sentence: "Sister, just play well, maybe you can even get a concubine out of her, don't forget to support me then."

"Promote? I will give you to the pork seller on Shilang Street, and you will have a good home." Miss Tingyun sneered, "You still want to pretend to be sick, give up this idea, or you will be beheaded."

Feng Lingyue pursed her lips and said, "Sister Yun, why don't we have a fight? You break my hand and I break yours, so that we can recover here."

"Are you sick?" Miss Tingyun touched Feng Lingyue's forehead and said, "You don't have a fever. If you don't have a fever, why are you so crazy?"

I've seen fanaticism, but I've never seen such fanaticism... Miss Tingyun suddenly felt the madness of this world. Little sister Yueyue was really cruel, and every word that came out of her weak mouth was full of martial arts.

"I can't help it. I'm not as favored as Sister Yun. Last time you came in person, you told me that you had met Xia Daosheng. You don't know how envious I am." Feng Lingyue sighed pitifully, and then said to Miss Tingyun: "Sister, what do you think if I go to him and ask him to redeem me, I will be his maid?"

"Are you crazy? It will cost 150,000 taels to redeem you! Which seventh-rank county magistrate has so much money?"

Feng Lingyue held her chin up and stared at the fence in a daze. After a long while, she finally said, "What if he agrees?"

Naive! Naive. Miss Tingyun felt that Feng Lingyue was a little bit sick in the head. How could there be a man in the world who would spend 150,000 taels for a prostitute! That's 150,000! Not 15 taels. She is not inlaid with gold or silver, how can she be worth so much money.

"Yueyue, don't be so naive. No man in this world will spend so much money on people like us." Miss Tingyun chuckled, "They will only covet your body, eat you up and then throw you back to the brothels. Then you will have no choice but to receive customers. My dear sister, don't trust men!"

"I won't!" Feng Lingyue shook her head and said firmly: "I'm going to try! What if it works?"

(End of this chapter)